i can tell you right now you need new lower control arms and changeing the uppers wouldnt be a bad idea. check the cv joints though i doubt youll need a new one. ive been down this road before. luckily the control arms are aluminum so they take the brute of the force to save the car.

 

update:

Shop called today and said everything was okay except for the two lower left control arms and the left axle. This shop is also fine with me ordering my own parts and having them install them. So I ordered them.

Axle: W0133-1836054 from partsgeek
Control Arms: MA16001-A and MA16026-A from blauferg

Im curious why on partsgeek the middle axle is so much more: http://www.partsgeek.com/search/?pro...6054&x=36&y=10, and why the first and last have different part numbers. The bottom one says new, thats the one I got.

 

The bottom vs. top are probably for the different years... I think in 99.5 they changed the size of the cv joint. The middle one is so much more because it's the OEM axle, whereas the others are made 3rd party.

 

gotcha. I checked various websites to do a part number match before I ordered. Just getting another second check that I ordered the right parts. Labor is going to be $267. does the axle come with the left CV joint attached??

 

Yeah it does. It goes in there as a whole assembly.

 

it seems crazy that the list on some sites is over $800, and you can grab one for less than $100. Thats a huge markup. I wonder what the stealership would charge for this same repair. does anyone have any thoughts on EMPI? Is it just a random company or do they have quality stuff??